Top 5 Things I Love About Nebraska

My top five things I love about Nebraska would have to include the following:

1. Czech Festivals

Yes...for those of you who know me, this is no surprise. I don't know anywhere else that has as many Czech heritage festivals and events as Nebraska. Not only do we have the Czech Capital of the US and the Miss Czech-Slovak US pageant right here in Wilber, Nebraska but we have festivals all over Nebraska. On top of the official festivals there is polka music (some of it lead by my husband) every weekend in some small town. "Czech" out the upcoming Nebraska Czech Festivals HERE or find Brad Husak Band on Facebook for updates where he will be playing. 

2. Dirt Roads
I grew up in Lincoln but when I'm stressed out and need some alone time I love driving to the edge of town (which seems to be getting further and further from my house) blast music and drive on the dirt roads that seem to lead to nowhere. (Especially calming if you catch it when the sun is going down!) When I get far enough away from the world I pull over and look at the stars and admire how many thousand there really are that we can't see in town. 

3. Friendly People and Family

Maybe this is cliche but I love being able to walk down the street or through the mall and see smiling faces. I have friends who have come to Nebraska from the Czech Republic or New York and they are so taken aback by this because it is very abnormal for them to see. I often wonder when they go back if they do this by mistake and people think they are a nutcase. :) I'm proud to say I'm from Nebraska because we're known for our nice people from our sportsmanship to our helpfulness...it really is "The Good Life." I also don't know too many other states where families live very close to each other. Maybe I'm a bad example but when I say I have a close family I mean it. :) We love each other and support each other and....live 1/2 block away. :) Yes I'm 1/2 block from my parents, 1 1/2 block from my younger brother, and 2 blocks from my grandma and grandpa. Maybe we aren't normal so this doesn't fit in this post. LOL I know that lots of Nebraska families stick around home to help each other out. Part of the good life seems to be family and friends!

4. Having All Four Seasons
While I'm not too happy with how long winter has decided to stick around this year, I am glad to have variety in our weather. Only in Nebraska can you have a tornado warning and a winter storm watch in the same hour but at least we have variety. Tis the spice of life right? It's fun to have a blast throwing snowballs at my husband and lounging in the pool in the same yard each year. (I'm not so much a fan of winter but I know I would miss it if I didn't see it every year.)

5. Local Sports
I know...I know...we don't have any pro teams. It's sad isn't it? NOPE! We don't need no stinkin' pro teams! ;-) I'm so proud to be a fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Lincoln Stars, and Lincoln Saltdogs. I'm glad that they aren't the biggest deal since sliced bread in any other state than ours and our players are amazing yet humble. I couldn't be more proud to be a fan of each and every one of these teams through the good seasons AND the bad (and we all know we've had a handful...or more....of those!!) I just hope that the young men we see on our field are the young men that go on to change the world as we know they will in the future. We'll be behind them through it all. 

Front Porch View

Today we're sharing our front porch views and I have to say, I'm jealous of all of you with open country space in your view. We're right in the middle of town so we don't have anything too exciting.

When I share that my family is very close people think we live in the same town but I do have to admit that the house on the corner....(you can see the peak of the house but it's not the one fully pictured in the photo)...yupp that's my parents house. Just across the street and one house away on this side but I tell people across the street and 4 houses away...still true on my side of the street but not quite as close sounding. HAHA!

Now from the other side! My favorite things in this photo? The butterfly lattice (when my FIL passed away a butterfly landed over my heart right outside of the funeral so he is always my butterfly), the blooming tulips (you can't see because of the shadows), and the stone that says Vítáme Vás (meaning "We Welcome You" in Czech.)

Someday...someday...someday we will have a gorgeous country view to share but for now this is our little piece of the world! 

To all of my fellow Nebraskans...enjoy this weather and I hope it lasts this time!!

Stefanie

A Day in the Good Life

Ok...I'm a little green and learning about this "Link Up" thing. I had to try it since that Kelsey girl is a fellow Czech-Slovak Queen and happens to be on my Scentsy Family Team so I figured she wouldn't lead me down the wrong path.

Oh my...how do I even describe a day in the life of me? It's different every day and all of them are busy, that's for sure. I'll just describe today for ya to give you an idea.

On My Way to School

Tuesdays are my "sleep in days" so I get to sleep in until 8 or 8:30 depending on if I have to shower or not. This morning I got up at 8am and got in the shower and got myself ready for the day. Since I'm in hair school my hair and makeup has to be done every day so today I blow dried my hair and put on some makeup then curled my hair...fancy fancy!

Then it's on my way to school, of course I chose the cosmetology school that is furthest from my house. Clock in by 10am or in this mornings case...right AT 10am. We start the day with practical class and today where we usually work on our mannequins but today we talked about the importance of customer service and got to bust out our acting skills in acting out a good customer service experience and a bad one. After practical class we go to theory where we usually have good old book work but today we were ahead and got a free day so we had a food day

Drove the Mustang Today

and watched Bridesmaids. WOOT WOOT! After a very hard morning it was time for lunch and I rode along with a friend while she went tanning and then back to school to spend the afternoon on the floor.

My first client of the afternoon was my lovely mannequin and then I had Brad's cousin Nicole in for the afternoon for a highlight and a cut. She's awesome so it was a great day chatting and catching up while I did her hair. Tuesdays while they are the morning I go in late they are also the evenings that I stay late so I don't get to clock out and go home until 7:30pm.

As soon as I got home tonight I cut my mom's hair but in return she brought us dinner as my mother in law was in town so we can take her dog Buffy in to have her eye

One of the Last Photos With Both Eyes

removed at the vet tomorrow. Poor girl has here eye all swelled up. :( Hopefully she will be feeling better tomorrow.

Just relaxing on the couch now updating all of you before it's time for bed. Starting the day again tomorrow at 7am to include school, a funeral, and practice with my Young Czechs of Nebraska Choir (a kids choir I teach of kids from age 3-12 that learn to sing Czech polkas and waltzes in English and Czech.)

Better spend some time with our little family (plus 2 tonight. ) Keep the family of Czech Days Charlie in your prayers as we celebrate his life tomorrow.

Stefanie Husak

Me and the Infamous Czech Days Charlie (Charlie Keller) Love This Man and All He Did for Our Heritage!
I hope he starts the polka party in heaven....we might be seeing a lot of thunderstorms over the next few months! :) 

Our "Extreme Home Makeover"

Well after we got our 3rd puggie last fall we have noticed that they have started marking territory. Yea...not a fun habit to break! The final straw came when we found pee on my baby photo album (which was hand sewn by my mom to match my baby nursery and cross stitched with my name and date of birth on the front.

No More Kitchen Table!

We have started potty training over from the beginning! We no longer have a kitchen table to make room for the 3 kennels we now have in our kitchen. We beginning to reinforce who is the alpha dog in our house (Daisy is1st, Lilly is our 2nd, and Max is 3rd in our pack) with feeding, attention, and treats. We also emptied everything out of our bedroom and carpet cleaned the floors first with vinegar, 2nd with bleach, and 3rd with a pet enzyme cleaner.

All of the Kids in Their "Rooms"

The kids are now learning to spend the day in their kennels and even sleep in their kennels (I think this part is even harder for their mommy than it is for them!) They are only in the house if they are in the room with us and if they go out of our sight in the house then they have to wear what we call their "fancy pants." Any guesses what these are?? Yupp...doggy diapers! :) Not only is it a good laugh for us but we can let them go out of the room and not stress that we will be starting this all over again.

The Bedroom Set We Have Picked Out

While we had everything cleaned out of our bedroom we decided it was a good time to get the new bedroom set we had registered for when we registered for our wedding. We also need to re-paint as our previous room was brown and the new theme will be silver. We have also decided to decorate with accents from our wedding. The bedroom set we have picked is Jennifer Lopez Old Hollywood from Kohls. We are going to paint our room grey and frame a photo of us from the wedding in black and white to hang behind our bed. Our accents in the room will be from our wedding with the black and white damask and red roses (my bouquet) and even our unity sand will fit into the theme of the room. It will be a special room and very much ours! :)

Traditional Backsplash in a Czech Kitchen

Czech Painted Plate

Last night we re-visited my idea to decorate our kitchen in a Czech theme. I know this is kind of an odd theme for a kitchen but when we got our new TV and got rid of our old entertainment center I also lost the storage place for all of my Czech crystal that I've received as gifts or prizes in my years as a Czech-Slovak Queen. I also collected several other items (including the 2 posted above) I want to display and this seemed the best place. The issue was that I don't have room for a china hutch to put all of this in and the best place I could thing of was on top of the cabinets which my mom pointed out would ruin them if I cooked and there was grease in the air. :( My dad came over last night and we are going to put rope light up on top of my cabinets and he is going to create a glass window in front of it to seal the items in so I can put it all up there.

I am beyond excited! I bought this house in August of 2007 and it has always been my house but it finally feels like it's becoming a HOME now! :) Not just a home but OUR home. One room at a time is all we can do with our crazy schedule but it's so much fun to see our ideas coming together and have things on the walls etc.

I will definitely post photos before and after in each room so you can see all of our progress as we go. Do any of you have any ideas to share on how we can make either of these rooms even more special? We would love to hear your ideas or special things you did to make your house your home after you were married.  

Till Next Time!
Stefanie Husak

Live "The Good Life" and Blog About It? Join the Fun!

My good friend Kelsey over at Keeping Up With Kelsey started me on this blog thing again. I've been a blogger on and off for years but thought maybe I would have some fun and meet some new friends on my newest attempt to blog along with keeping everyone posted on what is going on in our household. This little gal started a group to help all of us Nebraska Bloggers to connect with each other and I had to share. :)

If you're from Nebraska and you're a blogger be sure to follow the link below and learn more about our group. If you're not a blogger yet you should still follow the link and check out some of the awesome corn fed blogs she has listed there and when you're ready...join in the fun!

We're Famous!

We made front page news again! :)

For those that haven't heard our story, we met in October of 2008 after my mom actually met Brad and told him he had to meet her daughter (I later found out she even sent him photos of me before we met.) I was very involved in Czech Heritage events around the state and he came to a Lincoln Czech Club meeting where my mom made it VERY obvious that she was trying to play match maker. She made sure there was an extra seat for Brad right next to me and later in the evening asked him to have his polka band play at the clubs Christmas party and then proceeded to ask him if they had a singer...because she knew someone that could sing with the band he just had to exchange phone numbers with her. Yupp, she volunteered me to try to get us to spend time together. We began to get together once a week to practice  for the Christmas party and after we performed I asked him to teach me to play the accordion. 

I had wanted to learn to play the accordion for many years and never had the opportunity. (I wanted to learn to do a little of everything when I was a kid so my parents has to set limits.) I caught on pretty quickly and we had a few lessons from January through March. In March I found out I would be crowned the Lincoln Czech-Slovak Queen and decided I would play accordion at my crowning for my talent. I also decided I would incorporate playing the accordion in my talent for the Nebraska pageant. We began to meet every week and just as my mom gave up on us dating, I began imagining it. 

I was crowned the Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen that June and a week later Brad asked me to go to Larry the Cable Guy at Memorial Stadium on the 4th of July. I couldn't figure out if it was a date because he had won the tickets from work and I didn't know if it would just be the two of us or if there would be others joining us. When we went and he asked if he could buy me anything, a drink, a shirt, etc. I knew it was a date and I was excited. We continued to go out to Czech events, fireworks displays, and eventually made it exclusive. 

I competed for the title of Miss Czech-Slovak US in August of 2010 and was in complete shock when I was crowned at the end of the weekend. I had watched this pageant every year since I was born (the pageant began 2 months after I was born) and had always dreamed of being on that stage. I don't think I ever imagined being there and being crowned! Everything that had just happened was still soaking in when Brad came on stage. He had a microphone and asked everyone to give me a round of applause for a job well done. (At this point I was annoyed with him for stealing my moment in the spotlight.) He then said he was up there for another reason....proceeded with the mushy gushy stuff and then got on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him. It took me a moment to process what had just happened and I finally said yes. I found out he had asked my dad's permission two evenings before, my mom's permission the morning before, and even my brothers permission the evening before. The video even made it to the local news and they played it the following evening!

My Crowning Moment

The Proposal

We planned our wedding for September 15, 2012. When we first started dating I realized our parents shared an anniversary and I may or may not have looked up the next time it was on a Saturday. :) This gave us a year to travel with my Miss Czech-Slovak US title and a year to plan a wedding. Things got a little more crazy in the year to plan our wedding as I tried to finish my degree (so I could complete things "the right way" in life) and Brad's dad passed away that spring. It all came together and we had My Big Fat Czech Wedding or as some of the attendants called it...the wedding of the century. We invited over 800 people and had a wedding party of 26. :)

The short and sweet version of this was written in the Czech Newspaper for Valentines Day in February. Czech it out:

Cut it Out

Well I've talked about my little family and now I'll share with you all a little more about what is going on in my life. Right before we got married, I had a quarter life crisis (I'm not at the mid point yet) and realized sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day behind a computer was NOT for me! (Let's be serious...I talk too much.) The wheels in my head started turning and I thought of what I really wanted to do. I wanted something that I could have a little more flexible schedule with. I wanted something that gave me the opportunity to meet new people and build relationships without having to push sales etc off on them. I wanted something where I had the opportunity to be myself and be creative.

My Shears

I decided that I wanted to go to school for cosmetology and then go for esthetics too. This was a complete 360 from my original computer programming idea and business with a focus in information systems management associates degree I had received. I knew that my business degree would never hurt me but it's scary to sign up to start all over again!  As an almost married couple, Brad and I made our decision that I was going to go for it now before we start a family and lost the opportunity for another 18 years. It was exciting to make such a big decision together and we chose not to tell anyone else until it got closer. I finally told my parents a week before I started school.

Roller Setting our Mannequins for the First Time

I started in October and so far I am loving it. It's weird to be in school for something that truly interests you fully...not just this part or that part interest you. I even look forward to studying...which I have NEVER done. We spent the first 10 weeks learning all of the basics on mannequins and practicing some things on each other. It seemed like a crash course but with the help of instructors everything comes back to you easily.

One of the Many Haircuts we Performed on our Mannequins

The week of Valentines day brought nerves and excitement as transitioned to the floor. I'm on the floor cutting/coloring/etc on live people every day for a few hours. The longer I'm on the floor the more hours I will be out there. It's great because it gives you a real life idea of what things will be like and so far I love it!

2 Versions of Curling While Learning to Use Our Marcel Irons

I've had 2 mens haircuts, 4 womens haircuts, 1 kids cut, one color, one perm, a pedicure, and an excite party (little girls birthday party with nails and an up-do.) Several of these have been family and friends and for that I'm thankful. It takes the pressure off for the first few times you're out there.

One of My Many Up-Dos

I'll post more pictures as I have more models to share with you (that aren't mannequins!!) Remember to come see me if you need a cut, color, or need your hair styled!

 Stefanie Husak